i feel like an idiot, but thats only because the apple website makes me feel like one with all the help they offer but no way to answer my questions. If anyone knows the answers to my questions please let me know.

1. is the iphone usable by TMobile sim cards or customers?2. is the internet on the iphone free or do i have to pay for it to use it?

thats all i wanted to ask and i couldnt find any answers to this or a way to contact apple or any of their retailers to ask.

I recall sometime last year AT&T was offering to do free unlocks on the iphones for walkins as a promo, though I don't know if they still offer to do this. If not, you can hack the iphone to get it to work on other networks, the caveats being you prolly won't get all iphone features and if apple does do a firmware update it might "brick" the phone again like they did the last one, rendering it useless. The hack is pretty much the same one used on the original iphone. I wouldn't know where to get such custom sim adapters though. You could check around various tech forums to find out. Of course, be careful who you buy from.

.2 I don't know, never really owned a smartphone. You should check the plans from TMobile and see what they offer. Either they'll charge you a (fairly expensive) flat rate for unlimited internet access or they'll meter you, much like alot of the companies do with text messaging.

Personally, I don't care for Apple. They do make some lustworthy tech, but I can't stand their business practices and their bs marketing.

If you don't mind checking out alternatives, T-Mobile does offer the G1 with Google Android. It's Google's answer to the iphone. From what I've heard there's not much in the way of downloadable apps yet, like the iphone has, but that's likely to change over time.

You can unlock any Phone for any Service as long as Technology matches IE GSM Phones = T-Mobile & At&T CDMA Phones = Sprint Verizon Cricket Alltell but Each service Provider does not guarantee anything if you bring an inlocked phone to their service ..... As an example Bring a flashed phone from Verizion to Sprint I will activate it for you but any features that dont work arte your problem not mine .... T-Mobile and AT&T they would refer to it as unlocking a phone.....

As for Internet You pay for it regardless of the phone or the provider.... Some have plans that include all the services for just one price but the only way to get internet for free is get a phone that supports WiFi and hope that someone has an open High Speed Connection somewhere around

Hilf wrote:so it seems tmobile doesnt offer the iphone or the new blackberry storm then....gayness.

and thx hip, wifi was all i was interested in

T-Mobile wouldn't offer the iphone. AT&T has an exclusive deal with Apple to offer service with those. They do sell them without a contract now, but they won't unlock them for you and anyone else who does is most likely violating the iphone's warranty, which puts you at risk of possible "bricking" if Apple's stupid enough to pull another stunt like that. At the worst what might happen is having your iphone temporarily disabled till you can get a new unlock. In other words, stay away from firmware and apple software(operating system) updates if you unlock an iphone. The app store and any other 3rd party apps should be fine for the most part as those don't usually affect the os, though some of them might require a firmware or os update to work properly.

He absolutely hates the things. Seems every time there's a meeting somebody's playing with their blackberry under the table instead of listening to whats going on. Drives him nuts. =P

From what I can tell, Verizon's got exclusive rights to sell the Storm. A Cnet review even says Verizon's in charge of the firmware updates, which is odd. I would've expected Blackberry to handle firmware updates. You can ask blackberry or tmobile if it works with thier networks. Its prolly flashable/unlockable for other networks, just might not be a good idea to update the firmware or it might bork the phone. (good idea to ask Blackberry about that too) Also according to that cnet review the Storm doesn't have integrated Wi-Fi.

There's still The G1 if you're looking for a touchscreen smartphone and TMobile carries it. It even has built in Wi-Fi.

What is it with manufacturers limiting what carriers you can officially use the bloody phone with? All it causes is headaches for the consumer if they like the phone, but hate the carrier.

Well, if Blackberry's smart, they'll eventually come out with touchscreen versions that do support other networks. It doesn't make good business sense to restrict that kinda tech to just one network type and carrier. (course that didn't stop Apple from doing so)

stay away from the touch screens unless you just gota have it. The technology is too new and still full of bugs. one issue is the size and resolution of the touch cells. No matter how much they try to improve it, it's not gonna make your fingers smaller.

Then get an iphone, just keep in mind that, if you unlock it, you might not be able to upgrade the firmware/os for new features or fixes for bugs/exploits. Apple screwed iphone users once. Who's to say they won't do it again?